The Global Kitchen

This was just OK for me. I think part of the reason is the Asian salad mix I used was a bag of Dole which consisted of lettuce and cabbage. I remember why I don't buy bagged lettuce. I think a trip to the Asian grocery could have reaped some better greens. Or even a few bunches of greens at the regular grocery store. But I'm going on vacation at the end of the week and don't want a crisper full of produce.

The dressing was also too sweet for my taste so I ended up adding more lime juice.

What I did like was the flavor the marinade gave the beef. I'll definitely do that again. But instead I'll make it with the Thai Lime Beef Salad from this blog and add in the noodles. A fusion of the two salads would be excellent.

The recipe for Asian Steak and Noodle Salad, courtesy of Gourmet June 2006, can be found HERE.

Yum another grilled trout recipe!!! This time I used my grill basket, which I forgot I had until someone mentioned grill baskets on the Cooking Light boards. It's non-stick so cleanup was a lot easier. I didn't have to scrape fish skin off the grill anyway.

The trout was good, as it always is, but the best part were the beans! You could make these as a side for just about any meal. I was a little wary about the amount of butter but when it's browned it does have a nice nutty flavor. I would also like to cook some dried Rancho Gordo Runner Cannelini's for this next time. Canned worked fine but dried would be better.

I did make a couple of changes. I used white wine vinegar in place of balsamic because that's what I have. And I used a whole trout with the bones. I also put a few sprigs of rosemary in the cavity of the fish.

The recipe is from the July 2009 issue of Bon Appetit and can be found HERE.

Like everyone who saw the movie Ratatouille I immediately wanted to make the showcase dish.

It took me a couple of years to finally get around to it but here it is. I have made ratatouille before but it was more of a stew-y side dish. Not half as pretty as this dish which is actually a confit byaldi developed by chef Thomas Keller for the movie. The dish is actually a play on the Turkish Imam Byaldi which I have made many times and is featured on this blog.

You can find Keller's recipe HERE but when I was searching I came across Smitten Kitchen's Version which is the one I actually made.

I served it as a main course with some crusty bread. We were't very hungry so this really hit the spot. It is delicious and a definite repeater. Easy too when you have a mandoline although my mandoline wanted to shred my eggplant for some reason so I had to slice that by hand.

Next time "I will try Keller's version.